1. Field
The present invention relates to data storage and manipulation, and more specifically, to systems, methods and computer products for representing the relationships between data instances.
2. Description of Related Art
Computer systems have greatly enhanced our ability to store, manipulate and retrieve data of various kinds. One common tool for working with large amounts of data is the computer database. Databases organize related information by storing data records, with each data record having one or more fields of information related to the data record. The database is generally defined to be the collection of records itself containing the data. A database management system (DBMS) is used to manage, manipulate and interact with the data records of the database. Quite often, however, people refer to a database intending the term to include the DBMS as well.
There are several different types of database structures, including flat databases and relational databases that can be used to manipulate, store and report data. A flat database has data organized in a single, two-dimensional array of data elements called a table. Tables are organized in columns and rows. Some conventional databases allow the data instances to reference one another. This is done by keeping the reference of one within the other. However, this manner of referencing data instances has its disadvantages. For example, when relationships between instances are established through reference of one instance within the other, the instance schema gets tightly coupled with the relationship. Therefore, if the instance needs to remove a relationship or establish a new relationship, the instance schema needs to be updated.
What is needed is a better way to establish references between data instances.